The Skyscraper Museum is devoted to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. This site will look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
FUTURE CITY: 20 | 21
New York Modern
TOOLS FOR TEACHERS: PRE-VISIT AND POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES
BEFORE YOU VISIT
Brainstorm with students about the future. How will people move around? What will they wear? What will buildings look like? What won't we see anymore? Encourage students to visualize as they are brainstorming. Then, have them illustrate what New York City will look like in the future. If appropriate, have them label or provide written explanations for their illustrations. Remind students to put the year on their pictures, so that it is clear how far into the future they are looking!
Distribute historic pictures of the New York City skyline (Browse our virtual archive and 'Explore by Time'). Have students brainstorm a list of changes in the appearance of the city between then and now. You may also encourage them to infer other changes (ie: larger population, more trash to collect, etc.) that would not be visible in an image. Finally, have students use these changes to anticipate what New York will look like in the future. A simple three-column chart may be helpful (see below).
AFTER YOU VISIT
Debrief with students regarding their "before you visit" work. How was their work reflected in the Museum exhibit? How did the exhibit make them rethink their work? Allow students to go back and revise their charts and illustrations based on their learning.
Distribute a few images from the exhibit and have students go through a cognitive process similar to the one above. Have them find the things in the NYModern images that actually exist today, as well as those things that did not come to fruition. Then, have them evaluate the observations. See below.
